RTM Begins Review Of $78.8M Budget Tonight

For the next three nights, Waterford’s Representative Town Meeting will review and finalize a proposed , a 6 percent increase from this year’s $74.3 million total.

The budget, if accepted as is, will increase the tax rate from 18.79 mills to 19.82 mills, a 5.46 percent increase, according to Board of Finance member . The actual increase in the tax rate has not yet been determined because the town’s grand list, expected tax collection rate and revenue streams have not been finalized.

The average assessed home value is $188,000, meaning the average taxpayer will see an increase of $194, from $3,533 to $3,726, if Sheehan’s projections prove accurate. Now that the RTM has the budget, it can only cut from the total, not add.

The largest drivers of the budget increase are increased costs for bonding tied to and . In the proposal, the general government’s budget is up 3.48 percent, from $27.67 million to $28.63 million, the board of education’s budget is up 2.99 percent from $42.9 million to $44.2 million, and the capital budget and debt services budget, which includes school construction costs, is up 59.01 percent from $3.75 million to $5.96 million.

Enrollment is expected to drop 78 students next year, so the Board of Education’s proposed budget cuts two elementary school teaching position and one high school teaching position. The budget adds one position, a literacy specialist, , brings the talented and gifted program at the middle school without any additional cost and strengthens the high school’s learning through service program.

“I think it really goes back to we’ve really tried to balance the needs that we have with the understanding of where we are economically,” Superintendent Jerome Belair said. “It is sound, it is what need and is was built in a very cost-effective way.”

The Board of Education did have , partially . The single largest increase in the school budget is health insurance for Board of Education employees, which is set to increase 8.48 percent, or $663,633 from this year’s total.

Town Budget

The municipal operating budget’s largest increase for next year is also health insurance, which increased $750,960 from last year, or 21.23 percent. The rest of the proposed municipal budget basically keeps all town services intact.

“We'll see what the RTM has to say but we feel we have been judicious with what we have done with the budget, we validate what we spend money on,” First Selectman Dan Steward said. “There is only so much you can take out.”

The capital and debt service budget increased largely because of bonding from constructing five new schools. The debt service budget is up $1.3 million alone, or 66.65 percent, as the town begins to pay off some of those construction costs.

“We’ve done a lot to manage the town’s business,” Steward said. “Paying for the schools, paying for what we have to pay for and keeping our town intact without dramatically hurting the taxpayer.”

Last Few Years

As expected, the taxes have increased almost every year , causing Millstone Power Station’s assessment to drop almost in half and thereby decreasing tax revenues to the town by $20 million. The state did give Waterford a Systems Benefit Charge to help smooth out the transition, but that revenue stream ended in 2011.

Specifically, in the last five years, taxes have increased every year except one. In 2006-07, taxes increased 5.56 percent, in 2007-08, 5.93 percent, in 2008-09, 15.51 percent, in 2009-10, no increase, in 2010-11, 7 percent and in this current year, taxes increased 4.16 percent from last year, according to Sheehan.

In the last re-evaluation for the 2008-09 fiscal year, the tax rate was set at 16.86 mills, meaning somebody with a home assessed at $200,000 would pay $3,372 in taxes. If this budget is approved as is, the tax rate for the 2012-13 fiscal year should be around 19.82 mills, meaning somebody with a house assessed at $200,000 would pay $3,964. That means that for somebody with a home assessed at $200,000, taxes have increased $592 over the past five years, an average of $118.40 per year.

“In the past 10 years we’ve had to absorb a $20 million decrease in our tax revenue from Millstone because of the deregulation process,” Steward said. “We’ve done that with no change technically in services to the public.”